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Nick Scholfield Blog – Riding Melodic Rendezvous

Today, I head to Bangor-on Dee to ride Melodic Rendezvous in the two mile CES Novice Chase. There are four runners in the race and I’m hoping Melodic will jump round safely and have good confidence-boosting introduction to his chasing career. He’s schooled nicely at home and hopefully it will be the start of better things. He loves the soft ground and the track should suit him.

I’ve been very fortunate to ride some very good horse recently including Sam Winner who won the listed Betfred Chase at Aintree. His owner Mrs Angela Yeoman has always been very supportive of me one provided with one of my first big winners when Taranis won the Argento Chase at Cheltenham in 2010. It is always nice to ride a winner for her.

It was a very good day all in all. I had two very good rides over the Aintree fences and I take my hat off to Aintree. There’s a fine line between safety and taking away the spectacle of jumping the big fences and they’ve done a fantastic job. The fences are still huge and take a lot of jumping, but it’s certainly safer than when I first rode over them when I was 18.

Just A Par pulled up in the Betfred Becher Chase but up until then he jumped brilliantly and Rolling Aces ran a superb race under top weight to finish fourth in the Betfred Grand Sefton Handicap Chase giving the winner, Poole Master, a stone. To say I love riding over those fences is an understatement. On a good horse, there’s nothing like it.

It was also a great day for the yard with Paul Nicholls down at Sandown winning the Tingle Creek with Dodging Bullets and the Henry VIII Novices’ Chase with Vibrato Valtat. Paul’s horses are in great form which makes my life a lot easier.

On Saturday I go to Doncaster where I ride a nice juvenile for Paul called
Marracudja in the Grade 2 Bet365 Summit Juvenile Hurdle. I schooled him yesterday morning and he was very good. It’s a competitive race but we like him a lot and hopefully and we’ll learn a bit more about him.

In the Grade 2 Novice Chase, which Paul has won for the past two years, I ride a good called Virak who has won his last two chase starts at Fontwell and Haydock. He’s done nothing wrong all season and he has a big chance in what looks another hot renewal.

Paul runs Caid Du Berlais, who won the Paddy Power, in the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup at Cheltenham. He’s only a five-year-old but he’s a very nice horse and it was a very good performance when he won. I don’t think the handicapper has been too harsh for winning a race of that caliber.

It was lovely to win on Saphir Du Rheu at Exeter last Friday in the Harry Dutfield Memorial Novices’ Chase. He’s a lovely horse and could well be the real deal. He put his mishap at Newbury behind him and never made a mistake. I think he’s going to Kempton on Boxing Day for the Feltham. He’s a horse to follow and could be one of the big names of the future.